Bleys lead me down to the stables where he let me pick out a horse.
Now I must tell you that the stables at Castle Amber are simply
magnificent. The horses ranged from swift quarterhorses to monsterous
draft horses. All were strong and in good health. It looked as though
they had all been bred by a special technique. I'd have to inquire
later as to how this was handled. I chose a light grey steed that
looked to be built for long distances. Bleys tossed me a saddle and
climbed onto his horse. We were shortly riding down a wide road paved
with white brick.
"Destination Fallingham." Bleys shouted to me. "Use your new powers
to change the scenery until it matches that of you home."
It sounded like a fine idea, but how did it work? I could analyze
that later. I put my mind to the task. The first thing I'd need
is water. I invisioned a shore and rode towards it. This took us
off the road, but soon we came to a crystal blue lake.
"Good!" Bleys trailed less than a length behind me and to my left.
"Did the Pattern guide me to this lake, or did it create it."
"A little of each. Let me just say that you can't see this lake
from the real Castle Amber."
Ah yes Castle Amber, that would have to go next. I concentrated on leaving
the castle far behind and when I looked back it was gone. Next step
was to go from lake to ocean. As we rode, the far shore receeded. The
water color became deeper and took on a greenish hue. We stopped for
a moment. Bleys was beaming. He seemed to really be enjoying this.
It did feel good. I took a deep breathe of the salt air that hadn't been
there minutes ago. What next? Some sort of a landmark that would
seperate the isles from other shadows. Stonehenge! It was close enough
to Fallingham, just a short trip by ship, and I was very familiar with
it. I climbed back onto my horse .
We rode away from the shore a bit and over the next hill I could see the
morning sun shining through a patch of rocks, but when we reached it
something was wrong. The huge monoliths were not arrange in the propper
pattern. Just then I remembered something Blaise had told me years ago
at Cambridge:
"Walk seven times wintershins and you will travel like the fairies."
It made no sense at the time, but now... why not? I circled the
stones counter-clockwise seven times and sure enough the alignment had
changed perfectly. We were there! The port city of Essex was close by,
but when we reached the docks we received startling news. Sussex was
under attack. Aurthur was there and had sent messengers out looking for me.
Bleys used some strange mind trick on the boatmen to allow us to 'borrow'
a 2-man schooner and we sped to Sussex.